Are there any Type I Diabetic women reading this board who are pregnant, trying to conceive, or who have been successful with a healthy pregnancy?

I've been Type I for 30 years, and want to have a baby. I've consulted with a high-risk pregnancy doctor and am now terrified because he went over the risks. I've controlled my diabetes rather well, aside from the usual human weaknesses. May A1c's have ranged 5-6.6 in the last couple years and my weight is normal or below normal range due to careful diet and lots of exercise.

I'm reasonable enough to accept not having a child, if that's what's best, but I'd love some feedback from people who've been through it. Any comments are welcome and appreciated.

I have had 3 babies while being a Type 1. I didn't become a diabetic until I was 21 so my oldest was born before I had it. What can I say about the joys of a diabetic pregnancy???LOL Truthfully, they weren't that bad ;)

Your life turns upside down when you get pregnant anyway but diabetes, especially Type 1, complicates things even further. You will never have a normal pregnancy as you are considered High Risk. This means that you will probably see your OB, your Endocrinologist, and your Dietician on a regular basis. Most women start out seeing the Dr monthly, move to every other week, and eventually every week as their due date nears. My appts started out every other week. At 6 months, I started going weekly. This also meant a test called a Non Stress Test and a Biophysical Profile. The NST is basically a doppler that measures heartrate and movement. The BPP is an ultrasound that looks at the conditions in the womb. Needless to say, an appt could run over an hour easily.

Your insulin needs will change roughly at the beginning of each trimester. I started out at 1u of insulin for every 15g of carbs. I ended up at 1u for ever 5g's. I took blood sugars 12 times a day for the entire pregnancy. This made it to where my blood sugar didn't get the chance to get out of control. I DID have high's. The important thing was getting them back down.

Glucose crosses the placenta but insulin doest not. This means that your baby will have to control it's own blood sugars. Your highs mean that the baby has to produce more insulin. Once the baby is born, the sugar source is gone. This means that a newborn is very likely to suffer from extreme lows if the mother has high blood sugars throughout pregnancy. My oldest son's blood sugar dropped to 7mg/dl when he was born. There are also greater chances of things going wrong. My youngest son was born via c section at 35 weeks due to placental degredation. This is a common problem in diabetics and basically means that the placenta breaks down to the point where it no longer provides nutrients to the baby.

Babies born to diabetics can also have a condition called macrosomia which basically means large baby. The sugar from the mother crosses the placenta, the babies pancreas produces more insulin, and the processed glucose becomes fat. There is also an increased risk of birth defects for babies born to a diabetic.

My best advice is to start acting like you are pregnant now. That way, you start from the very beginning of a pregnancy taking care of yourself and your baby. Good luck and I HTH

Thank you so much for your response. You have confirmed all that the doctor explained to me. I was a bit put off by the medical terminology and the clinical descriptions and needed to get some feedback from someone who's actually experienced it. I left the doctor's office feeling I'd been surrounded by negativity. Your information makes me feel a little better--that things can be controlled day to day.

I'm certainly thinking of all the complications as I make my decision on whether or not to proceed. Again, thank you for sharing your insight.

Glad I could help. One other thing I wanted to point out is that the chances for complications are greater but that doesn't mean they will happen. One of my pregnancies was very typical of any pregnancy. The other two were typical until the end. I look at my kids and realize it was all worth it.

Good luck